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Nexus Anomaly – Experience Globes

Nexus Anomalies are seasonal gameplay changes that directly affect all game modes in Heroes of the Storm. These events will last the entire season, allowing us time to receive feedback on them. Depending on this evaluation, some of them may become permanent additions to the game, while others may just be a limited time event.

The first Nexus Anomaly has arrived! In order to make collecting experience more satisfying and intuitive, we're changing how experience is collected from Minions in the Heroes of the Storm. Players will no longer get experience from simply being nearby, but instead need to gather an Experience Globe dropped by dying Minions.

Experience Globes

Minions no longer give Experience by killing them, but instead drop an Experience Globe that must be collected.

Footman and Archer Minions (and their equivalent on different Battlegrounds) drop an Experience Globe that lasts for 6 seconds and awards 80 experience (plus 2 every minute).

Wizard Minions no longer give Experience, but Experience Globe values have been increased to compensate.

Experience Globes slowly move toward the closest allied Hero within 6 range, and are collected when an allied Hero comes within 1.5 range.

Experience Globes will not move toward Heroes that are hidden in bushes or Stealthed, but they can be still collected by these Heroes if they move within 1.5 range.

A few Heroes have special interactions with Experience Globes.

Ragnaros Lava Wave will now instantly collect Experience Globes as it passes by.

Abathur's Symbiote is treated as a Hero for the purposes of collecting Experience Globes.

Hallucinations like Samuro's Mirror Images or Nova's Holo Clones are treated as a Hero for the purposes of collecting Experience Globes.

General

Storm League

Team Leaders will now be chosen based solely on highest Rank.

Players who are Master or above may only queue for Storm League in a party with a maximum of one other player. The second player must also be Master or above. Both players in the party must be within 5000 Rank Points of each other.

Players who have completed their placement games may no longer play Storm League in a party with players who have not completed their placement games.

Toys 2 Event Quests

Toys 2 is the winter event for Heroes of the Storm running from the week of December 16 to the week of March 3, PST. Roll dice, complete quests, and join Tickle Mephisto on a board game adventure in the Nexus for awesome rewards... and sweet revenge!

Loot Chests

During the Toys 2 event, all Loot Chests you earn through progression, Heroes Brawl, or by spending gold will be New Toy Loot Chests. (Except Hero-specific Chests, which will remain unchanged.) Most limited-time items shown above have a chance to drop from New Toy Loot Chests only. You can also score Items from previous years’ winter events limited-time loot chests!

User Interface

User Interface improvements for heroes with multiple forms have been added to the Hero Collection and Hero Select Ability screens for Deathwing and to the Hero Select Ability screen for Greymane.

AI

AI will now pay more attention to lanes that need to be defended or attacked.

AI will no longer be aware of the status of mercenary camps they cannot see.

AI will path through enemy towns less often.

AI will more highly value preventing a mercenary camp from leashing.

Mercenary camp goal base scores have been standardized on all maps. This will make it easier to observe and tweak AI agent mercenary capture behavior.

Many map goal objective scores have been standardized on all maps. This will make it easier to observe and tweak AI agent objective behavior.

Volskaya Foundry

AI will no longer wait 8 seconds before using the Triglav Protector unless there is a human player on their team.

Agents will be much more consistent and willing to pick up and use Turrets and Bio Emitters on Volskaya Foundry.

New Hero: Deathwing, The Destroyer

Now prepare for the unmaking of your world as Deathwing descends upon the Nexus. The Worldbreaker has set his sights on the realms of the Nexus to spread his reign of death and destruction.

Trait

The Aspect of Death

Deathwing is covered by Adamantium Armor Plates, granting him Armor.

He deals double damage to Heroes and is permanently Unstoppable but is unable to be affected by allied abilities.

Mount

Dragonflight [Z]

After 3 seconds, fly into the air becoming immune to all effects and heal for 2.5% of your maximum Health per second. Once cast, this ability cannot be interrupted. Cannot be cast 4 seconds after taking damage, Basic Attacking or casting an Ability.

After remaining in the air for at least 8 seconds, Deathwing can channel for 1.75 seconds and land anywhere that his team has vision of in either Destroyer or Worldbreaker forms, dealing 75 damage to enemies. His abilities are put on a 3 second cooldown upon landing.

Energy: No Energy cost.

Cooldown: 45 seconds.

Basic Abilities

Molten Flame [Q]

Breathe a stream of molten flame, dealing 192 damage per second.

Molten Flame has an initial cost of 10 Energy, then drains 30 Energy per second.

Viking Stun duration when the Longboat is destroyed reduced from 1.5 to 1 second.

Developer Comment: Due to the changes to how experience is gathered, we expect the Lost Vikings to have a harder time filling their role on a team. To help them out a bit, we’re giving them a bit of a baseline buff, as well as buffing Longboat Raid.

Additional functionality: If Mephisto hits enemy Heroes at least 20 times with Basic Abilities while Shade of Mephisto is active, then increase the duration of the Spell Power bonus to 10 seconds after it ends.

Level 4

Spite [Passive]

Regeneration Globe duration increased from 125% to 150%.

Cooldown reduction increased from .75 seconds to 1 second.

Level 7

Frost Storm [E]

No longer Slows enemy Heroes near the Shade of Mephisto.

Additional functionality: Enemy Heroes who are hit by Lightning Nova while Shade of Mephisto is active are Slowed by 15% for 1 second.

Trickery [E]

No longer removes Slows and Roots from Mephisto.

Additional functionality: If Mephisto hits enemy Heroes at least 20 times with Basic Abilities while Shade of Mephisto is active, then reset its cooldown.

Level 13

Hysteria [Trait]

Additional functionality: Mephisto gains 15% of his maximum Health and Mana when he casts his Heroic Ability.

Level 16

Animosity [W]

New functionality: Increase the duration of Lightning Nova by .5 seconds Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes while Lightning Nova is active increase the duration of Lightning Nova by an additional .25 seconds.

Developer Comment: Mephisto’s talents have been largely unchanged since his release. While many of them seem to be in a good spot, some talents and talent tiers had some systemic issues that we felt could be improved with some changed functionality. We’re not looking to overhaul the Mephisto that you know and love, but we felt that he could use some new builds to play with.